


Symbiosis

by lonelywalker



Category: Smallville
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-04-16
Updated: 2011-04-16
Packaged: 2017-10-18 04:11:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 563
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/184834
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lonelywalker/pseuds/lonelywalker
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>S2. Lionel needs Martha... But Martha's beginning to need him, too.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Symbiosis

1.

Ordering out in Smallville is always something of a problem. Whenever they work late at the mansion, Martha has to remind Lionel that Smallville may not be a one horse town, but it's certainly a one _motorcycle_ town, and getting anything delivered is just about impossible. Lionel always suggests sending the helicopter to Metropolis, of course, and Martha pats his hand agreeably (although she'd quite like to smack him on the nose with one of his files) and says it'll be quicker if she just takes a look in the kitchen. She usually makes something so ridiculously simple even Clark could cope, but Lionel always savors it just as though it were dinner straight from a gourmet restaurant. And she can't quite blame _that_ on him being blind.

 

2.

After the first time Martha catches him on the treadmill, because she's always early and efficient, but occasionally _absurdly_ early and efficient, she seems to find him there peculiarly often. She asks, sometimes, if he'd prefer to put on his coat and come walking with her in the gardens, or in the winding lanes between fields. He always pretends to think about it, and she always finds him, a few days later, sweating in a tight black t-shirt, biceps pumping. After a while, she stops asking, and it's not because she feels rejected.

 

3.

They both try to learn Braille together, because Lionel has endless patience only when he's instantly good at something, and the only person who can keep his mind on the subject is Martha. For someone so brilliant, she has to marvel that he takes so long to learn even his ABCs. Admittedly, she can see as well as feel them, but she constantly needs to take his hand, to calm him down, to persuade him that he can do it. When he smiles, and squeezes her hand, and starts again, she feels more truly _needed_ than she has in a long time.

 

4.

He only kisses her once, and she's sure he doesn't mean it. Far from the monster who had left Lex and Clark to die the previous year, she sees him now as a lonely, helpless man both desperately in need of affection and pushing it away at every turn. One night, after a reception at Luthorcorp Plaza, they'd found themselves in his office after dark, laughing about the mannerisms of different guests, talking about the various places he'd found the artifacts that decorate the room. He's been drinking, and she's desperately sober when he kisses her, blind eyes looking into hers. There's an apology the next morning, of course, and a muttered explanation about his late wife, and too much Scotch. She waves it away. She's sure he meant nothing by it, even if she's a little less sure about herself.

 

5.

They see each other weeks after she'd resigned by mail, after he'd been shot and her husband implicated. She's pregnant with another man's child, and he's wounded more deeply than he'll ever let her know, but he looks at her with clear eyes, and she lets him see her smile. Sometimes, and only sometimes, after that, she makes an extra portion for dinner, and leaves it with the kitchen staff, a blank note attached. In Braille it says, _I'm not sorry_ , and she hopes he enjoys the sentiment just as much as the meal.


End file.
